William Hunter retired from his long career as a member of the Indian Civil Service in March 1887 and settled in Oxford, England. On 13 March 1889 Philip Lyttelton Gell, then Secretary to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, wrote to Hunter about
a project which has been for some time under the consideration of the Delegates, to publish a series giving the salient features of Indian History in the Biographies of successive Generals and Administrators.[3]
Gell arranged the publication of the series by June 1889; with Hunter receiving £75 for each volume, and the author £25. Financial constraints forced the series to end at 28 volumes in spite of Hunter's disappointment about the same.[3]
^ abcdH. P. (1891). "Akbar (Rulers of India) by G. B. Malleson; Dupleix by G. B. Malleson; The Marquess of Dalhousie by William Wilson Hunter; Lord Lawrence, (English Men of Action) by Richard Temple". Revue Historique. 47 (2): 387–393. JSTOR40938228.
^ abcH. P. (1892). "Lord Clive, (English Men of Action) by Charles Wilson; Warren Hastings by Alfred Comyn Lyall; Warren Hastings, (Rulers of India) by L. J. Trotter; The Earl of Mayo by William Wilson Hunter". Revue Historique. 48 (2): 387–400. JSTOR40939452.
^ abH. P. (1895). "Lord Clive, (Rulers of India) by G. B. Malleson; Lord Wellesley by W. H. Hutton; Land Revenue and Tenure in British India by B. H. Badenpowell". Revue Historique. 59 (2): 404–408. JSTOR40939319.
^Lane-Poole, S. (October 1894). "The Marquess Wellesley, K. G by W. H. Hutton". The English Historical Review. 9 (36): 811–813. JSTOR547604.
^"Rulers of India: Mountstuart Elphinstone by J. S. Cotton". The English Historical Review. 7 (28): 813. October 1892. JSTOR547455.
^Hutton, W. H. (July 1895). "John Russell Colvin, the Last Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West under the Company by Auckland Colvin". The English Historical Review. 10 (39): 604. JSTOR547869.
^"Rulers of India: Clyde and Strathnairn by Owen Tudor Burne". The Journal of the Society of Arts. 40 (2039): 123–124. 18 December 1891. JSTOR41328306.